Australia announces preliminary 32-man squad for FIFA World Cup

IANS  |  Sydney 

Australia's team head coach on Monday announced his preliminary squad of players for in

The former Dutch has selected youngsters and Fran Karacic, while recalling Jamie Maclaren, Mitchell Langerak, and

The squad also includes veteran Tim Cahill, who is hoping to become only the fourth ever to feature in four World Cups, joining the likes of Uwe Seeler, Pele and

"I am not a person who changes all the time and we thought for a long time about the first squad that we selected," van Marwijk said at a press conference.

"I had a good experience with the 26 players in the 10 days that I worked with them, so I had no reason not to nominate them again. But we have since seen other players so there will be a few new names in the squad", he added.

Van Marwijk, who led his country to final in South Africa, which they lost 0-1 to Spain, plans on trimming the preliminary 32-man squad to 25 on May 14, five days before flying out to for a training camp.

The Socceroos have two friendlies lined up ahead of against the on June 2 and on June 9.

are in Group C alongside one of the tournament favourites France, former European champions and Peru, who are making their first appearance at since 1982.

Their World Cup campaign kicks off on June 16 in against

--IANS

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First Published: Mon, May 07 2018. 15:00 IST